Great pics Josh, You can attach all your pics to one post reply and sent that way also. Ok, now I see you have a good seal around your door, so this is what I would recommend doing.
Even tho my door didn't seal perfect, I still cut a small hole under my smoke generator to allow good oxygen in to help with the burn and flow of the heat and smoke out.
I have a very strong Drawing effect threw my smoker this way. If I close my damper off completely my smoke starts bellowing out around my leaky door seal. Open it back up Smoke bellows out my exhaust and no more smoke leaking out around my door.
IMO, having good control over your heat and smoke out via your damper, Helps you have better control over your product in your smoker/cooker. So yes I would cut a 3"x3" or even 4" hole under your hot plate straight down and out. You could also place a screen over the hole if you had any worries of anything trying to get in when you're not using it.
Then you could also use a POOR BOY smoke generator as I do to Cold Smoke, or not?
FYI, one of the golden rules, your Smoker from here on out should never look that clean and white again on the inside!
Make sure to post up more pics of your progress for us all to see. Smoke on,
Mike